KCCA Begins Motorcycle Registration

Published: August 26, 2013

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Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has announced a registration exercise for all motorcycles (boda bodas) in the city. The exercise that is set to last two weeks will see KCCA register all private, corporate and commercial motorcycles in the city documented.
Announcing the registration exercise at her office in Kampala on Monday, KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi said the exercise is part of a plan to enable the Authority establish the number of boda-boda motorcycles operating in the city and help plan for the industry.

KCCA ED Jennifer Musisi. The Authority hopes that effective 9th September, all motorcycles in the city will be registered to help streamline their operations.

The two-week exercise will commence on 9th September in the five divisions of Kampala at 24 different gazetted areas. The operators are expected to turn up with a passport photo of the owner of the motor-cycle, another for the rider and also details of which stage the boda-boda operates from.
The registration will only be open to riders of Kampala at no cost.
The registration details are expected to be entered into a database that has been set-up at KCCA which will then be used to supply identification numbers, riding permits and reflector jackets to the boda boda riders.
Musisi says KCCA has had planning problems due to a lack of proper information on the number of public transport motorcycles, and this initiative is meant to streamline KCCA’s planning of the city transport.

It is estimated that there are 150,000 boda boda motorcycles in the city according to the chairman of the Kampala Boda-boda Riders Association Kagimu Sharifu. However these numbers cannot easily be confirmed as there is no central registration of Boda-bodas.

Kagimu says they are ready to co-operate with KCCA on the registration exercise.
The registration exercise will also present KCCA with the opportunity to enforce the motorcycle code of conduct which has been shelved since its inception. Musisi says the city authority is planning to hire KCCA traffic wardens to help in the enforcement.
Under the motorcycle code of conduct, each motor-cycle will be required to pay a monthly license fee to KCCA, the money will be remitted to the KCCA budgets. KCCA has also set-up a Boda-boda co-ordination office in the Authority to co-ordinate the activities.
The boda-boda industry is unregulated at the moment with the only form of administration being the stage management which issues permits for the riders to operate on their stage and the finances from the stage are not accounted for in the KCCA budgets.
Boda-bodas are a source of livelihood for many youths in the city. However the motor-cycles have also contributed the largest number of accidents. Mulago’s department of surgery estimates that 62% of their budget is spent on boda-boda related accidents.